Stan’s Obligatory Blog

From just after World War II until the mid-sixties, Arts and Architecture magazine did a series of articles on the “Case Study Houses“. These were houses that they had designed and built by the top architects of the day. Most of them are in the Los Angeles area, and today we rode to see three of them.

The basic route was our “Toluca Lake” ride. We rode down through Eagle Rock and then up the Los Angeles River bike path. Then past Griffith Park and Forest Lawn to get to Toluca Lake and Case Study House #1. Fortunately, David had read the articles about the houses we were visiting, so he acted as docent, telling us the story of the house and why it was designed the way it was.

Leaving Toluca Lake, we headed up into La Cañada to Case Study House #15. This one was built at a slightly odd angle on the lot in order to take advantage of views of both the mountains behind it, and, on clear days, a view of the ocean off in the distance.

Coming down off the hill, we rode over to Altadena for the final stop on the tour at Case Study House #20B. This one is on the somewhat-famous “Christmas Tree Lane” in Altadena.

Finally, we rode across Altadena and back down the hill to the park. It was a very nice ride.

43 miles.
cycling

Today was Rose Parade day in Pasadena. In practical terms, that means we’re under virtual house arrest here. It’s difficult to get anywhere, so we just plan on staying home. We got to see a lot of the horse teams from the parade, since they park their trailers in our neighborhood to pack the horses up at the end of the parade. It’s always strange to see horses walking down our little suburban street.

Wells Fargo had a pair of old-style stagecoaches in the parade, and we went to see them. They gave Lucinda a little plush stuffed Wells Fargo Rose Parade horse.

The group with the fairy wings made my day. The girls were cute in their costumes, and the horses were wearing glitter. What’s not to like there?

Their were also groups of high school kids walking around with trash cans, shovels, and brooms to clean up. I hope they’re getting extra credit for doing that.

Lucinda was with me for New Year’s Eve this year, so we decided to go out together for a fancy dinner. Our first choice was L.A. Prime on the 35th floor of the Bonaventure downtown, but they were doing a special menu. It was an $80 four-course prix-fixe, and they told me that they didn’t have any options for kids. So that was out. I went looking for other restaurants downtown that had views, and I found Takami. I called them, and they said that they were doing the regular menu, so I made us a reservation.

The place was very nice. The food was all good. We ordered a selection of small things, one entree, and dessert, and we shared it all. It was a nice evening, and nice way to close out the year.

It’s nearly the end of the year, and so I posted my Christmas-letter-summary of the year. It distills everything that’s happened in the last year down to one page.

O hai! Iz tiem fur mah yer in LOLcats.

2009 wuz gud yer. Thar wuz ups an dwns, but nothin liek teh wrenchin catastrofe dat wuz 2008. Teh yer startd out OK, but den took a turn foar da wurse in da luv area. But mah luv life has recoverd, an things ar once moar gud in mah wurld. In othr newz, I hads to buy new car dis yer, since mah old car needd part dat iz no longr made. I tooks trip to Texas foar da 16th anniversry party ov teh club I startd. I finily got couch foar da livin room. Teh divorce negotiashuns draggd on an on an on. An I turnd 50 yers old. So her iz teh story of mah yer, told in picturez frum icanhascheezburger.com:

kthxbai

On Monday and Tuesday, Lucinda and I went to San Diego again to visit my father and to go to Sea World again. When we got there, we had lunch with Grandpa. After that, we visited for a while at his place. We watched “Fly Away Home”, which Lucinda liked. After that, we went to our hotel to register and then we came back for dinner with Grandpa.

On Tuesday, we got up early and went to see the seals in La Jolla. They were all lounging on the beach, but we saw a few sea lions swimming around in the surf. We also walked over to Cave St and took the tour of Sunny Jim Cave. Lucinda was a bit spooked to walk through the tunnel down to the cave, but I managed to coax her down there. After that, we went to Sea World. We walked around and saw a lot of animals. We also took the Skyride, which gave Lucinda serious willies. At the end of the day, we went to the Shamu show, where we made a point to sit above the stadium rows that get wet. That might be fun in the summer, but not so much in December.

It was a fun little trip.

Pictures from the day are here:
Lucinda’s photos
Nature and Animals photos

A couple of weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times had an article about the Never Open Store. It’s in Hollywood, just off Melrose Ave, and I immediately thought it would make for an amusing sightseeing bike ride. And as an added attraction, we could go by the House of David to see the Christmas decorations. So today was the day.

It was chilly, but sunny, and basically a nice day for riding. We headed out across Pasadena, passing the preparations for the Rose Parade next week. Then we took a direct route down through Eagle Rock to get to Silver Lake Blvd. We rode across on 1st St and 2nd St to get to Larchmont Village, and then went one block west on 3rd St to the House of David. And it did not disappoint.

Continuing west on 4th St, we turned north on Alta Vista to get up into Hollywood. And then we arrived at the Never Open Store. As we expected, it was closed. We spent a few minutes looking in the windows at the strange things inside, and it was very amusing. Then we headed off to our snack stop at Groundwork Coffee on Sunset Blvd.

By now, it was getting almost warm, and it was perfect for riding. The route back was direct across Hollywood, and then back up through Eagle Rock. We rode through the San Rafael Hills in Pasadena to get back to where we started. When we passed the Rose Parade bleachers again, Jon practiced his ‘parade wave‘.

It was a nice ride.

44 miles.
cycling

On Christmas morning, I went for a bike ride. I didn’t have to be anywhere until afternoon, and it was a nice day. I rode over to Arcadia to meet up with the Foothill Cycle group. The ride was one of those rambling ‘rides to nowhere’. Just a loop around Pasadena to the snack stop in Alhambra. When we got there, I decided to skip the stop, since I had to get back to get ready to go out. So I rode directly home from Alhambra, pausing only briefly to admire the view of Mt Baldy covered with snow in the distance over Alhambra Road.

It was a nice ride.

33 miles.
cycling

It’s Christmas Eve, and Lucinda is at my house tonight. So she got to open the presents I got for her. They were all platypus-themed. We had a Chinese dinner, since that was what I had supplies at home to make. And we also spent some time playing Rock Band on the Wii.

All in all, it was a very fun ‘bachelor-father spending time with his kid’ kind of evening.

I had occasion this evening to go to the Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank. This is the original one, built in 1949, and it’s something of a SoCal landmark. And it has great neon signs. So I got some pictures while waiting for my date to arrive. Fortunately, there were a lot of newpaper boxes on the sidewalk, and they made great platforms to balance the camera for steady night shots. So I got pictures of the Bob’s signs, and also the neon hot dog across the street at Papoo’s Hot Dog Show.